Just yer standard murder ballad:
A broadsheet murder ballad typically recounts the details of a mythic or true crime—who the victim is, why the murderer decides to kill him or her, how the victim is lured to the murder site and the act itself—followed by the escape and/or capture of the murderer. Often the ballad ends with the murderer in jail or on their way to their execution, occasionally with a plea for the listeners not to copy the evils committed by them as recounted by the singer.
lyrics
I woke up at dawn with a pride-swallowing siege
Over the dad of the daughter that I married.
Oh those things that he said, man, I could not believe,
So I stabbed him with an ice pick in his sleep
They found him in the house he occupied all alone
After the Mrs. had passed away.
And the detective at the door said, “Dad’s three days dead,
And we’re looking for a motive in the murder”.
The next three days felt like three decades
Amounting to my thirty years.
But the worst of my fears was not my wife’s tears,
Then materializing with a knock at the door.
A neighbor had seen me leaving the scene,
That night three evenings ago,
And my boot print had frozen a path straight from his door,
As I walked away that night in the snow.
I then thought about his tombstone and the dates that they’d engrave
And how I defined the line between them
And If my life could still be saved
I packed my bag, It was time for me to go.
The road was calling out my name.
And if I stayed to face my fate, there’d be no one I could blame
And they’d separate my body from my soul.
I then pictured my own tombstone and how death tolls a souls decay
And of the fire of the brimstone
And how all bright lights seem to fade
They tracked me out to the desert.
A cruiser threw dirt in the air.
I reached for my hardware...
Oh no,
all the silver and gold couldn’t buy me time or save my festered soul
Hey Hey, but what’s life anyway,
if not a steady and destined march to the grave.
credits
from Magic Tricks and Rolling Stone,
released July 18, 2016
Recorded, Produced, & Engineered by Paul Ritchie
@Insidious Sound, Neptune NJ
Mastered by Alan Douches
@West West Side Music, New Windsor NY
Ed Tang - Vox/Guitar
Brad Harrison - Drums/Percussion
Vic Fraternal - Keys
Nick Bock - Bass Guitar
Geoffrey Myers - Lead Guitar
Beautifully played and full of moving vocal performances, the Bay Area singer/songwriter's latest is a stellar work of art. Bandcamp Album of the Day Feb 3, 2023
